Once considered an ambiguouse question, the CRC for Sheep Industry Innovation believe the answer could well be in reach.

Teamed with Westrern AustralianDepartment of Agriculture, UWA and CSIRO WA, and the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, the CRC has headlined a ground breaking new study that aims to unlock the complex science behind the production of the greenhouse gas methane in shee.

Sheep CRC CEO, Professor James Rowe, says there are two fundamental approaches to reducing the Australian sheep flock’s methane production.

"Firstly, ensure there is efficient production of wool and/or meat per animal, and secondly, ensure efficient production systems (in terms of methane production per unit of wool and/or meat)," Prof Rowe said.

"The Sheep CRC is uniquely placed. It has eight ‘Information Nucleus’ flocks located around Australia that provide a powerful genetic tool to investigate a difficult technical issue."

The Information Nucleus (IN) has been designed by the Sheep CRC to provide information about the interaction between genetics, management and the environment, and assess traits that have traditionally been difficult to measure.

"We can determine if there is useful genetic variation between animals that we can select directly for less methane production per unit of feed consumed (the pattern of fermentation and methane production), or indirectly for ability to produce more wool or meat per unit of methane emitted."

He says the second major opportunity is to improve the efficiency of the production systems.

"This can be done thorough management or changes in nutrition as both factors can significantly affect methane produced per unit of wool or meat for every animal," Prof Rowe said.

However, effecting change will require accurate measurement of methane production.

"This is the major challenge facing researchers. In fact, the first milestone in this project is to develop an effective way of measuring methane production on individual animals in the field.

"The CRC will be using well defined relationships between the pattern of rumen fermentation and methane production and the latest equipment for measuring gas samples under field conditions. This is expected to provide sufficient accuracy on measuring any variations due to genetic, management and/or nutritional factors."

Professor Rowe says the research project will be run at two Information Nucleus sites during the first year in NSW and in WA.

First results are expected before the end of the year.